Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (w/ Pix)
 

Thought I'd post this for future reference.
This is Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV).
Worse disease I've ever seen in my limited growing
experience. At least with Fusarium, I get fruit before the
plant dies.

This one just stunts the plant and deforms the fruit, if it gets
that far.

Vectored by thrips, it is especially bad in the deep south.

Lee

[img]http://www.tomatopalooza.org/2006/pix/TSWV2.JPG[/img]

[img]http://www.tomatopalooza.org/2006/pix/TSWV1.JPG[/img]

6.16.06 EDIT

More links added for better reference. Click to see these.

[url=http://www.tomatopalooza.org/2006/pix/TSWV3.JPG]TSWV Pic 3[/url]
[url=http://www.tomatopalooza.org/2006/pix/TSWV4.JPG]TSWV Pic 4[/url]
[url=http://www.tomatopalooza.org/2006/pix/TSWV5.JPG]TSWV Pic 5[/url]
[url=http://www.tomatopalooza.org/2006/pix/TSWV6.JPG]TSWV Pic 6[/url]

TSWV
 

Hi Lee,

I think I'm seeing signs of TSWV on Lucky Cross and Coyote in my garden near Pittsboro. What a horrible disease! I want to be sure before yanking plants, so I may give them a few more days. So thrips don't respond to any sort of insecticide, eh? Is reflective mulch the only possible prevention?

Mark

is it ok to just remove foliage
that looks like that ?

~ Tom

Remove the entire plant immediately before thrips have a chance to spread it to your other tomato plants.

Is this likely in Cincinnati? I'm seeing something that looks like this on several plants in one bed.

Val

They need to invent Tomato Inferon. :(

A leaf from Baker's Family Heirloom this afternoon:

[img]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y237/valereee/tswv.jpg[/img]

My Giant Green Zebra is now infected...need to remove it tonight and see what else has been impacted. First time I've had it in my garden since 2002.....took a look at the Nine Dwarfs today, so far so good - though even if they do get it, I will keep the plants till they produce a ripe fruit, for seed (I've not seen it passed through seed - seed from the fruit from my 2002 infected Orange Heirloom produced healthy plants each year since).

"Is this (TSWV) likely in Cincinnati? I'm seeing something that looks like this on several plants in one bed." [Val]

Val,

I just took my beloved Russian Chocolate out this morning ... R.I.P. It looked like a victim of TSWV judging from the pictures provided above. I pruned all the damaged foliage off this past weekend, but yesterday when I came home, it was infested to a greater degree than before ... I'll post my photos tomorrow or Monday.

Anyway, if it's 180 miles down river here in Evansville, then I would think it may likely be in Cincinnati as well.

Hope your garden does not fall victim to TSWV, Val. Best wishes ...

PV

A fellow tomato grower suggested lavender oil (10 to 12 drops diluted in water, in a medium-sized atomizer) sprayed on the plants every few days. (I don't know if her plants have TSWV, though.) She says she sees positive results.

GTG

Is the lavender oil meant to help prevent/get rid of the
thrips? Might be something to consider next season....

Lee

For the past 2 seasons I used yellow sticky traps to control thrips - caught many thousands of the little stinkers :evil:

This year, I ran out, and was too late finding an alternative, and now I'm pulling out plants that are having this sort of problem :cry:

[url]http://au.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/founeit/detail?.dir=c958scd&.dnm=fcdbscd.jpg&.src=ph[/url]

PP

YUK!

My Russian #117 got it! :(

This is the first time ever any of my plants have shown this disease. Is there anything I can do? And what causes this disease? (This patch is brand new, no tomato has been grown in it before, the patch has good soil, compost, thick mulch, no over- or under-watering...)

Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus caused by thrips. As soon as you have positive diagnosis, pull the plant immediately or other plants will get infected because of thrips.

Hi, Patrina. So that old fashioned fly tape really works for thrips?? If it does, I'm trying it. I lost three quarters of my plants this season to TSWV even though I pulled them out quickly after it started to show. Thanks!

Yellow sticky traps are little square yellow rectangular cards that you set up in your garden.

Okay, I guess I've never seen one. I'll look for something that looks like a card then. Do they sell them at the hardware store?

[url]http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=yellow+sticky+traps[/url]

As an alternative to purchased yellow sticky traps, one can take those yellow plastic party cups, smear them on the outside with vaseline, and mount on a pole/stick/whatever.

I like the cup idea because I already have yellow cups. Wish I'd done that this past summer. I hope it helps. Thanks.

By the way, do you guys in Texas have to deal with TSWV [i]every[/i] season? I've been growing tomatoes many years but I've only had this happen twice. This year, of course, and I think it was 2001 or 2002. I can't imagine having to worry about this virus every year. What a pain! :roll: I'm starting to worry about it again because the weather has been so mild and that means more thrips. I want it to get cold and stay cold for a while to zap those critters!

[quote=shelleybean]By the way, do you guys in Texas have to deal with TSWV [i]every[/i] season?[/quote]

I haven't had hardly any problems with it, myself. But there's always next year, or the year after that... and I sure hope it won't become one, since there's not much you can do once a plant is infected.

I've specifically used the cups before for whiteflies, worked very well.

In my case, with room for only one or two of each variety, the potential is there for TSWV to wipe out all of my tomato plants, so if there's a cheap possible solution, I'll try it. I have ordered some of the cards and I'll try the cup too. Even if it doesn't work, I didn't spend that much trying. And ya gotta try, right? :wink:

I don't think it is just the mild winter that impacts TSWV for us.... When I first saw it around here they said the winter wheat harvest had been seriously damaged that year. The thrips that carry the spotted wilt thus had to look for another source of food and the young tomato crops proved to be quite attractive.

Another thing I noticed is that the both years I had a bad case of TSWV, the plants near a big cedar tree were unaffected. Here's my theory.... The thrips are blown in by the wind. The tree blocked any from getting to these two
or three plants. Thus only the plants that were not protected by the tree were vulnerable.
If this is true.... you might be able to set up a 7' barrier to
keep the thrips from reaching (via wind) your main garden bed. The tree was on the North side of the garden. Also, you could bag all of your blossoms before they open as that seems to be what attracts the thrips...

Just some thoughts,

Lee

Is this TSWV? 2
 

Yesterday I noticed that my Sungolds had spottty leaves. I defoliated them in hopes of containing the infection. Them after reading about TSWV I thought that maybe they have this. The most affected leaves are already in the trash but I found this one today, have a look. I am not sure if I should pull these or not, thanks for the advice in advance.

Top and bottum view of affected Leaf.
[IMG]http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g278/vincentlavallo/IMG_0997.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i58.photobucket.com/albums/g278/vincentlavallo/IMG_0999.jpg[/IMG]

Hard to decide at this point. TSWV is spread by thrips. Do you have thrips in your
part of CA?
If so, check on the flowers of your plants and see if you can detect some really
small looking bugs that resemble fleas.

I have found that TSWV pretty much kills the plant eventually, so there is no
reason to keep it, unless you have ripening fruit when you first see the disease.

At this point, though, I would wait and see what transpires before taking such
drastic measures.

Lee

I agree with Lee. It's hard to tell from just those few spots. Don't pull your plants just yet. I did what you did, cutting off the spotted foliage. If that's what it is, it'll be all over a bunch more in a couple of days and you should have a better idea of what it is and maybe you can post another picture. I hope, for your sake, it's not TSWV. It's such a frustrating situation because once the plant has it, there's nothing you can do but take it out.

I don't know for sure if there are thrips in my area. I couldn't find anything specific to my area by googling. But, I found some information about thrips in Irvine CA, which is about 45 minutes from here. Apparently there is TSWV and thrips there, so since its so close I probably do too. I will wait and see what the plants look like in a few days when the new leaves come in.

Vince

Sungold is very, very susceptible to foliage spotting early in the season, especially when cool and rainy. I've seen this many times - the plants recover when the weather warms up.